[All] Line 9 update

Wed Mar 25 00:13:45 EDT 2015

Hi folks
Les  Citoyens  au  Courant 
Quebec group Les  Citoyens  au  Courant have been lobbying to get municipalities in Montreal to secure hydrostatic testing of Line 9.  They published the following report which shows non compliance to NEB conditions to secure valve placements on both sides of major rivers.  It is in French, but Table 1 at the end of this report lays it out quite clearly.http://faitspipelines.com/resources/Demande_de_r%C3%A9vision_condition_16_avec_signature.pdf Currently this group is helping to organize the Act on Climate march on April 11 to co-relate with the meeting of Canada's premiers in Quebec City. Info here: http://act-on-climate.ca/one-pipeline-down-more-to-go-april-11th-quebec-city-act-on-climate/

Common Carrier Status of Line 9In the US, the term "Common Carrier" when used for a pipeline generally means it is US oil for US use and projects that fit that criteria have the right to expropriate US properties to facilitate pipeline projects.  The term was used for Enbridge LIne 9 during our NEB hearings as well but since that time, I've heard comments from Enbridge's spokesperson Graham White saying how the pipe may be used to bring up US oil from Nebraska for processing at the Irvine refineries in Quebec. At the NEB groups like Unifor opposed the idea of shipping US product to Canada. I wrote to the Prime Minister's Office to clairify the term common carrier (In their view) and today I received a written response from the Federal Minister of Natural Resources, Greg Rickford who states the term "common carrier" has no link to the country of origin of the crude oil transported. That email is in the attachments for your reference. 

Actual Spills Response in Toronto Found LackingLast year on June 1st I witnessed a Hazmat 2 fuel spill in the Humber River. Early media reports on May 31, 2014 covering the spill stated it was an oil spill from a high pressure pipeline by Albion Road to the East of Islington. 
I secured MOE information that shows how Fire departments have jurisdictional power over the MOE at times of fuel spills and can deny the MOE participation even though the MOE has jurisdictional responsibility to investigate spills volumes to set fines, they are supposed to film and record the event and plan strategy to stop/capture the contaminates. So the City via the Fire department controls the response. 
I secured FOI docs from the City of Toronto and MOE that prove the following:

a) The Fire department with the help of Toronto Water Services conducted a 2 hour investigation concluding that the spill was from illegal dumping from a sewer. They have no location for this sewer and the never did identify the chemical involved even thought they gathered it up using booms. There are no estimates on quantity of the spill and no follow up for harmful impacts on aquatic communities.

b) Toronto Fire called the Spills Action Centre only after they came to the conclusion that it was illegal dumping. The MOE didn't even arrive on scene until 2 days later. 
c) Toronto Fire Department called the Spills Action Centre (SAC) but when the SAC called City of Toronto staff for further info of the event they were DENIED information. Staff said they were not allowed to disclose anything including the case number. They were told to withhold information from their supervisors. Eventually a supervisor was put on the phone and the data was released but it took a great deal of effort on the part of SAC staff to get that information. 
d) The City of Toronto did not have booms big enough to stop the fluids flowing in the Humber so some of this fuel floated away downstream to Lake Ontario.
e) Downstream communities called the city of Toronto for updates because they lacked information. Their water intakes were downstream of the Humber River. 
f) Nobody called the NEB about this spill. Their spills response centre didn't even hear about it until I spoke to NEB staff in August later on that same year. 
There's some room for improvement to put it mildly!  
Spills Response ProtocolsI wrote a letter to the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change regarding a basic question of who is responsible to contact the NEB during an oil spill. The response was not as clear cut as one may think. In a nutshell, the municipalities (via fire department)  have the duty to notify the Ontario Spills Action Centre, who then notify the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. (TSB) who are the folks responsible for calling the NEB. This is confirmed in the attached letter of response they provided to me today. It's in the attachments.
Have a good one everybody! 
Louisette  

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